


Chrysalis

by Somecallmemichelle



Category: Pocket Monsters: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire | Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Versions, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Hoenn, Hurt/Comfort, Shorts, Sweet, angsty, it varies, trans boy wallace, trans main character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-03 10:04:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15816675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somecallmemichelle/pseuds/Somecallmemichelle
Summary: Just adventures of trans boy Wallace in Hoenn, mostly with his best friend Steven Stone.  The ups, the downs, the good days and the bad days. Doesn't follow a set order, mostly stories under 1000 words.





	1. Chapter 1

“C’mon Steven”, and Steven knows it’s serious because for the first time since he can recall Wallace used a contraction and didn’t spell out the whole word. Wallace who looks at him, a pitiful self amongst his Pokemon. At his side Victoria, the Milotic that’s his pride and joy gently lets her head be petted by the boy known as Wallace. It’s not a rational and well thought out decision. Wallace just does it out of habit, to feel something in his hands. And Steven try as it might can’t help but remain silent. It’s his burden to carry. He doesn’t really know how to deal with the situation.

 

“You have had to have noticed.”, And though Steven believes that the fact that Wallace at least came to him is a good sign, he still doesn’t know how to act. Or what to say. It’s not like it’s a big deal to him, but somehow, watching the tears practically deluging the small space Wallace likes to call a loft, really a fancy word for the apartment on top of the Sootopolis Gym, somehow Steven has the very distinct feeling that yes. It’s a big deal. At least to Wallace.

 

And, being that Wallace is his best friend, Steven presents himself under the obligation to help. Which really, is no obligation at all. It’s more like a feeling of what to do. He doesn’t  _ have to _ help, but he certainly wishes to do so. It’s only right.

 

“I truly didn’t”, Steven admits, sure some things were always off about Wallace’s behavior, he was far too much. At a certain point he had once held him, hugged him, complimented his suit, and somehow had never gotten a wrinkle in his own garment. It was a supernatural feat, but then Wallace had always been very careful with his clothing. Far too quick to adjust it if it somehow slipped out of place. He didn’t wear much, but the one he did wear covered him, giving just the hint of something. Something Steven couldn’t quite place, at at the same time he didn’t want to place. Wallace is peculiar but Steven has always accepted that as part of his friend’s behavior. He could have mood swings, and a confidence that bothered on the unhealthy, but those weren’t things Steven could in good faith mention.

 

“You’re peculiar, that you have always been, but I truly didn’t think of you as a…” Steven clears his throat, has he noticed? Perhaps some things have stood up. But maybe it’s just common decency, maybe it’s the fact Wallace chooses not to indulge, or share, one of the chinks in that perfect little armor Wallace builds, but Steven has never made the mental association. It’s not something he quite cares about.   
  
Wallace’s hand still grip the head of his Milotic. Victoria has the kindest of looks, compassion in her eyes, and Steven tries to emulate that look. He wants to show Wallace that he cares. Perhaps not to the extent of pity, Wallace can be dramatic, but he doesn’t enjoy pity parties, but enough to stand there.   
  
“What about League business? What about my papers? It’s still there, present as an ever burning red mark on the paper”, Wallace laments, and Steven shakes his head. In reviewing across the Gym leader’s files, gender was the last thing on his mind. He barely spared a glance to the introductory information. He’s more interested in how well they do their duties. He’s hired literal children for heaven’s sake. Their reports, usually written in coloured pencils or crayons make him smile.

  
“You, of all people should know that I don’t look for such details.”, and despite his pleas, despite his lamentations Wallace nods. That is true. Steven has never struck him particularly as the type to care about such minute little details.   
  
Only Wallace can’t think of themselves as minute. They helped define...well him. And sure he’s pretty much perfect, he’s glad to be as he is - some exceptions in his upper torso notwithstanding, but there are good days, and there are ok days, and there are fabulous days, which is pretty much every day, with him, and there there are bad days. And today, well today is a bad day.

 

“Oh, Steven!”, Wallace’s face is a mess. And he thanks his lucky stars that he’s the kind of boy...the kind of man to have such a perfectly sculpted face that it doesn’t need any makeup or such to enhance the natural beauty. Even if it could be less delicately built, Wallace counts his blessings. He’s not opposed to wearing makeup per sae, he’s seen it plenty in the Contest circuit, but he is of the belief that while he could pull it off - there’s few things he couldn’t pull off - it’s not something he wishes to try. Not at the time.   
  
“What about my beauty? My reputation?”, Wallace is quick to the draw, not forgetting what has brought him here. To be outed in such a public manner - it’s not exactly how he wishes to tell his fellow gym leaders. Not to mention all the other challengers and pretenders to his badge.  Before he can push himself into a frenzy again, there are ripped pillows all across the room, and he’ll have to pluck the feathers later out of the carpet, Steven interrupts.

 

“You do have beauty.”, Steven can claim that with accuracy. It might not be the kind of mannish beauty Wallace wishes, but he does possess a certain boyish charm to himself. A sort of grace, and cute factor. Steven wonders if voicing those thoughts out loud would offend his friend and decides that maybe – just maybe, he won’t mention it. “And what of your reputation? I did not pick you for the job of Gym Leader because of your good looks.”, Steven seems to blush but he stands resolute, his eyes like steel as he talks. “Or because you almost begged me for the job upon Master Juan’s retiring, or even, in a way, because he recommended you!”

 

Wallace can’t help but let out a smile of his own. “Please, Steven it’s not grovelling or begging, I was simply showing my interest.”   
  
Steven nods, not intent on contradicting his friend while he’s in this position. It’s a position of vulnerabillity. He’s well aware. As champion very few of the rumors that come out about him are true, but he does his best to distance himself of those that are.    
  
“...Be that as it may I choose you because you were the best option for the job. Your record speaks for itself. You are the most effective Gym Leader in Hoenn. I’d actually almost advise you to lose sometime, Drake is getting restless!”, Steven smiles at that, but a quick glance shows that Wallace isn’t exactly smiling at the joke. “Point being, Wallace, you have a reputation as a contest master, and as an even greater Pokemon Trainer. And as someone who has fought you before - and only scrapped a win, I must say -”   
  
There is a pause as Steven wets his lips. Wallace actually looks up at him, paying attention.   
  
“You’ll get them. Any dissenters, and any, and forgive the faux pas, foolish enough to call in question your skills because of your gender, whatever they perceive it to be.” Steven hesitates, but pushes a hand to Wallace’s brow, feeling how feverish he’s in. He’s clearly worked himself into a state!   
  
“I am proud to be your coworker, and I am proud to be your friend”, Wallace grips Steven’s hand harder and though Steven stone is someone who doesn’t much enjoy physical contact, he grips back. “And, most of all, I am proud of the man you are. You’re a good man, Wallace, a good man.”   
  
And with that said Steven sits by Wallace’s side. It’s a moment of mutual companionship. A moment where Wallace’s tears slowly stop coming and his chin stops quivering. And at last. A croked couple of words is all that he can say.   
  
“Thank you.”   
  
No matter how much politeness has been drilled into his head by Master Juan, as befitting a master  contestant. Wallace is shocked to realise he’s truly humbled enough to mean those words when said to Steven. For a moment they both stand silent.   
  
“Now, what kind of guest would I be? May I offer you a tea?”, Wallace moves into activity and Steven lets him, nothing has changed.

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

There was a gasp, perhaps audible throughout the region as Winona spoke. Were he on the trees, and not on the ground, Wallace would definitely have fallen and fainted. Only for Winona to have to jump in after him. It would be quite the dashing view, a proof of elegance, just one more dance through the air. But Wallace didn’t feel like it. He truly didn’t,   
  
“What do you mean?”, his lip was white and he pushed his view towards something, anything other than the face of his girlfriend. It wasn’t that he disliked her face, he found it pretty amazing, cute, and all those adjectives up until a certain point he had only applied to himself. It was just...it was hard. Harder than it should be.

 

It also didn’t help that this was the first time this happened to him. Him, Wallace, who’d want to leave his tender embrace, to lose the opportunity to softly caress his jawbone, and to press their  lips together to his?

 

“I’m sorry Wallace, I simply can’t explain.”,  some of the shoulder rubbing with Wallace had taken an effect and Winona spoke now in a more formal tone. Wallace hadn’t entered the relationship with the desire of changing her, but it had happened all the same. It sent a painful prod into his heart, as if digging itself a hole there, as he realised that she once had loved him enough to emulate him. It had once blossomed, the Wingull flying throughout all of Eastern Hoenn to deliver the messages they eagerly sent one another.   
  
Wallace had at the time considered it the perfect Pokemon to send the message. A mix of Water and Flying, just like the Pokemon he and his beloved specialised in. Now he wasn’t so sure if he would ever be able to use one once more. The seagull pokemon. Ha! Wallace had catalogued in his mind,just like he did factoids for every other water inhabiting Pokemon, he had made a point to remember how Wingulls near the shore helped lost sailors find their way home. And he would appreciate the help. He was truly lost.   
  
“It is just as if you’re not like the other girls I dated!”, and Wallace wanted to make a mean spirited comment about how she would know, and he wouldn’t because he had stayed faithful. Only he couldn’t. Not only because he still cared for her - absurdly so when he had just had his heart broken by her but because he had let out a small gasp, his mouth had opened in a small oh, as he realised it. He guessed it to be true, he wasn’t the perfect specimen of a girl, he wasn’t even very much girly. Period. Still hope was the last thing to die, and he just to ask.   
  
“Is that all? Because I can change!”, to think! Wallace, ready to change himself for another person. He hadn’t thought it possible that he would ever be willing, classes with Master Juan, giving him the posture of a master contestant,. Notwithstanding. But Wallace was desperate, and willing to do anything. Winona could see it in the way his eyes glanced at her. He had been avoiding her gaze, but now he stared at her with the puppy dog eyes she was well acquainted with.

  
They had been used for many a thing. Winona had found them so adorable...so desirable, really, she had conceded small things. Yet, looking at it, now, she found it attractive, yes, the glow in Wallace’s eyes was still as shiny as the beak of any of her Pokemon, and she cared for cleaning them, but the urge to approach, say yes and kiss him, it just wasn’t there. Not anymore.   
  
She seemed to judge her words before speaking, and it was her turn to to turn her gaze away from Wallace. Because she didn’t want to hurt him, because despite all that, even if the attraction had passed and things hadn’t worked out, she didn’t wish to be mean.   
  
“It’s a lot of things…”, and, faced with the miserable look Wallace was sure to be giving it, she shifted her gaze, glancing at the side, to where some of her own Pokemon nested. “You don’t have to change Wallace. You’re perfect just the way you are…”   
  
Wallace couldn’t help but be confused by her words. If she was so perfect, if she enjoyed him as he was, then why was she, to use the newish term, dumping him? Why was she ending the relationship, so abruptly, so suddenly?   
  
Wallace had known it to have had its rough spots, but he truly believed it to be improving. They had talked things through, they  had promised one another that they would try. And try they did, though Wallace guessed from the “ex-girlfriend” label he had to apply to Winona, that it truly hadn’t been a roaring success. 

  
“Right…”, Wallace was no stranger to self deprecation, though he didn’t share if very often with the world. It was a side that only his girlfriend, had so far seen. “...perfect just the way I am, that is why it’s through!”,

  
And Wallace couldn’t help the nasty giggle that came to his lips, or the tears that flowed to his eyes. He had tried, above else that hurt, he had tried. Being a decent special one had been hard. Even more so when he was faced with training with Master Juan, and hs  own inner demons. But he had given it his all.

  
“Wallace-”, there were no words said, as Wallace refused the contact that Winona tried to provide. It might have provided him with comfort, with a warmness, but it’d be delaying the inevitable. Winona hesitated, before turning. - “I’m sorry, you were a wonderful girlfriend, and, even if you never cared for going shopping with me, we had many a wonderful moment, it’s just -”   
  
“I’m not like the other girls you've dated. Yeah.”, Wallace had shuddered at the though of shopping for dresses. It had been fine when it was Winona and she got some very nice peaks into what she’d wear, and more to boot, but inevitably it turned into Winona trying to pick something for him. To gift her. And Winona was doing her best, and Wallace appreciated it, but he hated it. Truth be told every time she called him “Her girlfriend” he felt a weird mix  of delight and aggravation. It wasn’t particularly nice. But he had tried.. 

 

It just hadn’t worked out. After all, he wasn’t like “other girls”. And Wallace shook his head, tears flying free through the wind, like Winona had the wish to fly.    
  
“It’s ok ho-Winona.” they were back on first name terms now? He guessed they were, no more affective nicknames. It’d just be weird. - “I don’t blame you.”

 

He smiled, a courageous smile, one that took him a great deal of effort to make. But, at last he could stare upwards. The trees of Fortree were casting shadows into the ground, but there was also light, streaks of blue where the sky poked through.   
  
“Fly free Winona”, he whispered. Waving goodbye in a debonnaire manner. He softly adjusted his jacket. Aware that there was a likelihood of rain nearby.    
  
Maybe that’d clear his head. “Not like the other girls”, huh? She had a lot to poder….


End file.
